Blog

Mother’s Day is this Sunday and somebody better DANG WELL rise up and call us blessed. Churches have their own unique ways of doing this—some are great , some are very strange, and most are somewhere in between.

God is in the business of developing His character in us. He is not, I believe, in the business of overhauling the way He has already uniquely imprinted us with His divine image. Sanctification is not His process of cloning us into the Model Christian Woman.

Dwelling in my anger was hurting me, hindering me from seeking good, and making me irritated, indifferent, and angsty in my closest relationships. I am changing, but I’m not still not equipped to talk about moving past anger. The best I can do is talk about what I’m learning as I deal with it.

We have to talk about anger, for two reasons: For one, feeling anger is inevitable. I don’t think we’re going to suddenly stop feeling the angst that comes along with being squeezed into a box that we don’t belong in. We also need to talk about anger because we feel alone in it sometimes, and that can lead us to even more frustration. Healing often comes in realizing that we’re all dealing with the same issues, feeling the same hurt, and working towards the same goal.

When I inevitably proved not to be the kind of woman I was supposed to be over and over again, it wasn’t something wrong with what I was doing; itwas something fundamentally wrong with me as a person. I always felt like the black sheep, I was passed over a lot because there was something about me that wasn’t quite right.It sometimes felt as though calling me a “Christian woman” was as ironic as calling me a name that means “peaceful and quiet.”

I’m realizing that all the things about being a woman that used to make me feel weak have actually revealed the strength I have. This is true for all the women that I encounter every day. We consistently show up for our jobs, families, friends, and communities, often while dealing with additional and unseen physical, emotional, societal, and systemic realities that simply come along with being a woman.

Most of us realize that taking one day of rest a week is important. We may realize on a soul level that we were not designed to go hard seven days a week—and between jobs, errands, housework, church, family schedules, and even technology, that is precisely what many of us are doing.

First of all, the answer to any pregnancy ailment is to drink lots of water & eat small meals throughout the day. Me: "I think I'm pregnant with an octopus, not a human" Doctor: "Drink lots of water & eat small meals throughout the day"

…Also, does anyone happen to have strong opinions on the book “Baby Wise”?

Most of treat our bodies like collectibles. We reach some kind of "ideal" body around our early twenties and from that point on, we live just to keep our bodies in that condition--so no one can tell that they've been taken out of the box. We constantly try to keep off the pounds. We dye, shave, pluck, and tan. We try everything to get rid of freckles, wrinkles, stretch marks, acne.

It's really easy to pull out the "context" card when you run into a difficult passage, or one that is not your favorite. You could pull out some sort of context argument for every chapter and verse of Scripture, arguing that the Bible never actually says what it means. Which can lead us to ask: Is context just a cop out? Is it just an excuse for ignoring parts of the Bible we don't like?

When we eliminate 50% of our possible leaders, teachers, writers, counselors, and speakers from the majority of our church ministries, we are hurting ourselves. We are pushing men to step into roles that just don't fit them and concentrating the skills of women into a very small amount of ministries.

I've always felt that talk of hospitality is akin to taking an Emily Post course where you should get the cleanness of your house, the decor, the food, etc, all perfect. And then the whole Spiritual aspect is tied into everything, so if things aren't perfect, it kind of makes you not as good of a Christian woman.

Too often the Christian circle wants to talk about where we should land on the feminist spectrum. Around whether Jesus was a feminist or not and what those hard female Biblical passages mean. Maybe the best question isn't what word we pin to our vests, but what we plan to do with those beliefs.

1 Timothy 6:10, the verse about the love of money being the root of all kinds of evil, is always assigned to rich people. It's a rich people verse because all of those rich people need to know that they better not get too attached to their massive wealth. But the truth is, you don't have to have money to love money.

In trying to be thrifty, I've got to be careful that my motivation isn't just to have money. Am I being wise with my money so I can be generous, debt-free, and prepared for the future, or just so that I can have more wealth and possessions? Being frugal is often seen as virtuous, and it often is, but I have to look past appearances and into my own heart and ask myself what my motivations are.

When you're single, sermons, books, and Bible studies are focused on telling you that only the love of Jesus can fulfill you. When you're married, the same sources are focused on teaching how a husband and wife can love each other in a fulfilling way. For all our talk when we were single about how no person could fill the place of God in our lives, we sure started acting like it was possible when we got married.

Politicians, businesses and teachers readily disappoint you, and sometimes Pastors, Deacons, and Seminary Professors add to the burden. Purposefully and pointedly, beyond simply having a sinful moment, they take that swing that leaves you staggering. And it just hurts.

So where's the line? That's what we always want to know. Fingertip length? Cover the shoulders? One piece swimsuits? No cleavage ever? Where is the line between abaya and hooker? Because all of us have an unspoken line somewhere between the two and deep down we want an actual rulebook to give validity to what we've always thought.

I replace prayer with guilt over the fact that I haven't prayed. When I do pray for something, I feel like one time is not good enough. This guilt is toxic to what my communication with God could be right now. I don't feel the freedom to just come to Him and talk...or listen. I feel like when I come to Him, I have a backlog of 10 year's worth of prayers.